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Cosmic View: The Universe in Forty Jumps

Authors:
Kees Boeke (author), Els de Bouter (illustrator) and Arthur H. Compton (introduction)
Language:
English
Original language:
English
Publisher:
John Day Company
Categories:
Children's and science
Publication year:
1957
ISBN:
0381980162
Pages:
48
Synopsis:

Cosmic View is the inspiration for the 1977 IBM short video Powers of Ten. It's a pretty short book written for children (though it's very interesting for adults as well) about the relative sizes of things in the universe. The book differs a bit from the video, mainly in that it explores each scale at more depth.

The book starts out showing a girl in Holland, zooming outwards, each time by a factor of ten, 25 times (so that the scale ends up being 1:1025). Each image is accompanied by a bit of explanatory text. Halfway through, the book then zooms inwards, ending at a scale of 1012:1, about the size of an atomic nucleus.

Review:

I found the book pretty fascinating, if a bit short and not as detailed as I'd wished it to be. However, I can't hold that against it as it's really a children's book. I can heartily recommend it.

Has read?
Yes
Debut?
Yes
Images:
Back flap of Cosmic View.Back of Cosmic View.Spine of Cosmic View.Front of Cosmic View.Front flap of Cosmic View.

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